Hoodies with school shooting theme spark outrage

By Gary Dinges gdinges@gatehousemedia.com

Wednesday

Sep 18, 2019 at 5:08 PM

A line of hoodies with a school shooting theme has sparked outrage across the country.

The clothing, from designer Bstroy, is emblazoned with the names of four sites — Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida; Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut; Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia; and Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado — where students were gunned down. They represent some of the nation's deadliest school shooting scenes.

The distressed hoodies include designs intended to make them appear as if they are riddled with bullet holes, CNN reports. They debuted during the line's spring/summer 2020 fashion show, according to Complex.

Families affected by the four tragedies were quick to call out Bstroy. One person, on Instagram, wrote, "My dead classmates dying should not be a [expletive] fashion statement."

A foundation named for Vicki Soto, a teacher killed at Sandy Hook, weighed in on Twitter: "This is just absolutely horrific. A company is make light of our pain and other’s pain for fashion. Selling sweatshirts with our name and bullet holes. Unbelievable."

"We wanted to make a comment on gun violence and the type of gun violence that needs preventative attention and what its origins are, while also empowering the survivors of tragedy through storytelling in the clothes," Bstroy designer Brick Owens told NBC's "Today." "Also built into the device is the fact that our image as young, black males has not been traditionally awarded credit for introducing avant-garde ideas. So many people have assumed our message to be lazy just because of what they’ve been taught about black men. These hoodies were made with all of these intentions in mind, and to explore all of these societal issues. Not just the surface layer of gun violence in schools but also the different ways that we relate to each other and the dated ideas that still shape the assumptions we make about each other."

Owens said Bstroy had not initially intended to sell the hoodies, but it is now exploring that possibility.